80 FOXHUNTING ON LAKELAND FELLS 



of your whereabouts, and possibly reveal the 

 hounds. 



Sometimes when the dales are thick with mist 

 the fell tops stand out quite clear, and you look 

 down on to a white sea. Next to mist hard 

 weather — especially when there is much ice on the 

 crags — may stop hunting for a time. Snow is 

 not so bad, for though it makes hard work of it for 

 followers, hounds can get through it aU right, and 

 scent is often good when the white covering is 

 damp, 



I must not dwell on the dark days, however, 

 for there are times when weather, scent, and all the 

 rest of it goes right, and a day of this kind is a day 

 to remember. The morning is fine and still, and 

 the atmosphere |S0 clear that every rock and stone 

 stand out distinctly. The distant hills are tinted 

 from indigo to mauve, and you wish you could 

 transfer the glorious panoramic view to canvas. 

 You are out early, having made a slow and easy 

 ascent of the fell, and you sit down where you can 

 command a view of the dale and the rough ground 

 below you. Far away in the bottom you espy the 

 huntsman's scarlet coat, and those httle white 

 dots moving here and there are the hounds. 



A faint note sounds, and then another, and 

 gradually the music swells and grows louder. 

 Hounds have struck a drag, and are maldng their 

 way towards a frowning crag which juts out from 



